If there’s one thing we can rely on every December, it’s countless versions of “A Christmas Carol” all around the Bay Area and beyond. But Mountain View’s Pear Theatre has something different in store than the millionth production of “A Christmas Carol.” Instead, they’re offering “The Millionth Production of A Christmas Carol.”

This cheekily titled world premiere is the latest comedy by South Bay writer-director James Kopp, the diabolical mastermind behind past Pear works “Geeks vs. Zombies” and “Super Villain!” (He also performs in the play and did most of the design work.)

“It’s about a struggling black-box theater in the Bay Area shoehorning a production of ‘Christmas Carol’ into their season,” Kopp explains. “They just did two artsy shows, and nobody bought any tickets. They just bombed. So they decide to play it safe and add a production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ to sell tickets, which is going in usual comic fashion until an actual ghost appears.”

Behind his new play’s absurd backstage high jinks are some serious questions about the theater business.

“The other theme of the play is the people who decide to do independent theater,” Kopp says. “I get professional people in theater who make a living off it, but there’s a person in the Bay Area that is Marlon Brando level of acting, he’s just amazing, and he’s a receptionist in his daily life. He’s sought after by multiple companies because of how talented he is, but he still has to work a day job.”

Amusingly enough, the seeds of the play were planted when the Pear rejected Kopp’s proposal to direct the Dickens classic.

“I’m really one of the dumber people that you’ll meet that has climbed this high,” he says. “I don’t think about the fact that I should see what other theaters are doing. About two years ago, I was like, ‘I want to do a production of “Christmas Carol,” and I’ve got it all set up for a black box. I think it would be very effective and very moving, and there’s a spectacle to it.’ And they all in unison rolled their eyes. One person on the steering committee was like, ‘I bet you do have one, and I support it if you want to put it up. But I can’t go to it. I cannot see another production of “A Christmas Carol.’”’”

Instead, they had Kopp do “Geeks vs. Zombies” last December, as a bold alternative to the usual holiday fare.

“Do you every have those moments in your life where you feel like you’re in a bad comedy movie?” Kopp asks. “Somebody says something that you hadn’t noticed, and after they say it you notice it everywhere?”

When the Pear folks said everybody does “A Christmas Carol,” Kopp recalls, “What’s funny is I straight up thought they were being snobs. What a cop-out way to say you don’t want to do the play! And then I was out in San Jose a week later, and there were four different posters for four different ‘Christmas Carols’ just in downtown San Jose. Then I had to take a trip into San Francisco, and it was everywhere. The ‘Christmas Carol’ ballet! The ‘Christmas Carol’ all-puppet production! I would stop and read each poster, and I was kind of shocked, because they all said the same thing — ‘spend this holiday season with that classic tale, told as only we can tell it.’ Like we had a copy-paste theater-making machine.”

That experience got Kopp thinking about the perceived need to peddle familiar fare to keep theater companies afloat. “Which always makes me nervous, because I’m always writing my own plays and putting them up,” he says. “But it helps if you put ‘Zombies’ in the title.”

For that matter, putting “A Christmas Carol” in the title probably won’t hurt either.

Contact Sam Hurwitt at shurwitt@gmail.com, and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.